


A Christmas Function

by habenaria_radiata



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, Humor, M/M, Post-Triangulum Arc, Programming Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2019-02-22 08:34:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13163220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/habenaria_radiata/pseuds/habenaria_radiata
Summary: By the end of their divine ordeal, Yamato Hotsuin had lived three lives. In not one of them had he ever celebrated a holiday, much less one in which it was traditional to feast on KFC and spend exorbitant amounts of money on frivolous gifts and fake trees. Hibiki decided that was an utter travesty and sought to rectify it for their fourth life.





	A Christmas Function

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Katraa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katraa/gifts).



> This is my """secret""" santa gift for Katraa. SURPRISE BABE, IT WAS ME THE WHOLE TIME
> 
> Merry Christmas, Kat ♥ Happy holidays to everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

* * *

 

  
    Hibiki was bound and determined to make Yamato's very first Christmas an affair to remember. He'd gone a little overboard to that end, in fact: they had a Christmas tree that barely fit in their apartment, which Hibiki had decorated with such gusto, Yamato had to be actively convinced there was an actual tree beneath the plastic; he'd purchased a big, fancy electric fireplace with customizable color-changing flames; he'd even managed to talk Yamato into allowing him to host a Christmas party at JP's for the first time, which was a Big Deal.  
  
    And Hibiki was not enjoying a god damned bit of the holiday he'd been so insistent upon, because he was crammed in his office chair with his knees flush to his chin, the heels of his palms digging into his eyes and his soul crying out in despair. This stupid program _refused_ to run. A noise of anguish burst out of him, and he dropped his legs and pitched his face into the keyboard.  
  
    He was so agonizingly close he couldn't tear himself away, which was unfortunate, as the Christmas party had started almost an hour ago. He hadn't meant to lose track of time -- really! But he'd been desperate to have something to show Yamato for all his efforts, and all he had was a broken program that refused to summon anything but Pixies when it deigned to work at all. Currently, it was throwing a bizarre error that a bunch of frantic Googling had failed to illuminate.  
  
    Hibiki wanted to die. Even after nearly a year together, Yamato had been infuriatingly coy in the face of Hibiki's gift-related badgering. Truthfully, he understood Yamato's resistance to the idea. In all three lives he'd lived, the man had an obscene amount of money. If he did want something material, which was rare to begin with, Yamato simply bought it with little fanfare. Hibiki loved him desperately, but this habit made him an extremely irritating person to buy for. As if that weren't enough of an issue on its own, his only real hobby was programming, and that didn't lend itself well to gifts either. Buying him a programming book seemed like an insult; Yamato did not need guidance in such matters, especially since he'd written a program that had given them the ability to steal from God.  
  
    So. That was out.  
  
    Since Hibiki also wasn't in a position to hire staff, 'capable personnel' and any other work-practical gifts were out too. A vacation would have been nice, but the last time they'd traveled, they were gone for a third of a year. Yamato had been quite firm in his many, many assurances that Hibiki's company was all that he required, but Hibiki couldn't shake the feeling that conceding to that was a cop-out. Even if it was kind of tempting to glue a giant bow to his head and sprawl out beneath the tree to present himself on Christmas morning.  
  
    That was about the time it occurred to him that while he may not be satisfied offering himself as a gift, he could offer something Yamato had professed to wanting on his own, in a manner of speaking: he could learn how to program. It wasn't ideal as far as a gift went, but it was heartfelt, and he was sure Yamato would appreciate the gesture. Hibiki already worked for JP's, but by learning a new skill set, he could diversify his abilities and hopefully find new common ground with the love of his life.  
  
    It had seemed like a wonderful idea at the time. He hoped to have a functioning miniature version of the summoning app to show Yamato by Christmas, but by the time the party rolled around, Hibiki had realized very intimately that no, actually, it was an incredibly dumb idea.  
  
    As it turned out, programming was fucking hard.  
  
    He'd had a blast learning at first. He wrote himself a tiny calculator, made a dorky Hangman game, and wrote a hilariously dumb program that would generate ad-libbed horror movie synopses for fun. But the more complicated each project grew, the more he became aware that programming generally involved more than making variables and telling the computer which two to add together.  
  
    Still, every program he'd tackled had worked -- at least until he set his mind to writing the demon summoning application. He'd been certain it would be within his grasp. He even wrote himself a goofy flow chart to nail down the logic, which he hadn't bothered to do up 'til then.  But it was all for naught. The compiler continued to crash each time he tried to run it, spitting out this un-Googleable error until Hibiki was consumed by the need to hoist the computer tower into his arms and chuck it through his fancy bay window.  
  
    "Hibiki?"  
  
    He jerked upwards in his seat and spun to see Yamato standing in the open frame of his office door. "...What are you doing?" he asked, his eyebrows pinched. A frown was steadily building itself across his mouth.  
  
    "N- Nothing!" Very convincing, Kuze. He pushed himself away from his desk and chanced a brief glance at his monitor. "Uhm, working. On something not work related, I swear!"  
  
    Yamato paused, then rolled his eyes. "Oh, that does make it better," he intoned, enough insincerity dripping from his tongue to choke a man. He approached nevertheless, pulling away from the door frame and holding out a plastic plate with the very tips of his fingers. As Yamato looked down at it, his face drew into an expression of distaste that suggested he wasn't particularly enthused about the food sitting upon it. Hibiki blinked at it.  
  
    Hesitantly, Yamato tilted the plate and slid it onto his desk. "As leery as I am to consume anything quite so greasy, I was assured that it is edible."  
  
    Fried chicken sat innocuously on the plate. Hibiki laughed and pulled it closer. Yamato had actually let them order KFC. He was so cute. "Thank you," he murmured, lifting his head to look back up at him adoringly. "I'm really sorry I've been MIA. I completely lost track of what time it was."  
  
    "Doing what?" Yamato repeated. "What could possibly possess you to be doing 'not work related' work on the night of the party you begged to throw?"  
  
    Hibiki's shoulders sagged, and he sank backwards into his seat with guilt rippling through him. "Trying to debug this stupid program. I was hoping to surprise you. I've been at it for hours, but I can't freaking fix it! I don't know what's wrong with it."  
  
    Yamato blinked at him several times. For a moment, Hibiki was concerned he hadn't heard him. Then he swiveled towards the screen and leaned forward. "You wrote a program?" He sounded surprised, but to Hibiki's immense relief, there was a warm edge of delight to it that made his stomach burn.  
  
    "Yeah! I did! A few, actually, but this one is the one I really wanted to do for you and it...doesn't work."  
  
    "I see." Yamato was staring so intently at his monitor, Hibiki felt weirdly embarrassed. "Is it giving you an error message?"  
  
    "Yeah, but it's a really bizarre one I've never gotten before. I don't know what it means," he confessed. "Hang on, I'll show you." Yamato moved away from the desk so Hibiki could scoot forward and try to build and run it again. Of course, it crashed about half a second after the console opened, and the error popped up near the bottom of the compiler. Yamato leaned forward to squint at it, then snorted in amusement.  
  
    "Corrupted memory? I've never even seen this error before." He tilted his head towards Hibiki with a smile that would flip his heart if it weren't so filled with amusement at his expense. "...What did you do?" Yamato finally asked, his voice laden with a warm, slightly disbelieving chuckle. Hibiki buried his face in both hands.  
  
    "It's not funny!"  
  
    Yamato huffed faintly, but Hibiki refused to look at him until he felt the man's mouth press against his forehead. "I'm impressed," he said. His earnestness made Hibiki feel better. "Let me have a look at it."  
  
    "Wh- No!" Hibiki could feel his neck heat up as he pitched forward to cover the screen. "I'll fix it, I swear."  
  
    Bewildered, Yamato leaned away from him and tilted his head. "Not tonight. I did not agree to this event assuming _I_ would be hosting it," he reminded him, folding his arms and frowning softly. Hibiki slid away from his desk with another surge of guilt sweeping through him. That was most definitely true.  
  
    "But I don't want you to see it yet."  
  
    A scoff was the only response Yamato seemed to feel that merited, but he relented after a moment. "I can't help you correct it if I can't look at your code, Hibiki."  
  
    He wasn't at all sure how he felt about letting Yamato actually do that. Hibiki was an amateur and Yamato could probably code such a simple program in his sleep. It felt strangely...exposing to him. Probably that was absurd, given that he exposed himself to Yamato in a more literal sense on the regular. Hibiki blushed like an idiot and slowly got up from his seat. "But what about the party?"  
  
    Yamato scowled at him, the bridge of his nose wrinkling sharply. "You are well aware that I would much prefer to help you debug a program than to... _mingle_." Oh, was Hibiki ever. He laughed sweetly and ducked forward to tilt his head and brush his lips to Yamato's.  
  
    "Good point. Uhm, I'm still learning. Be gentle?" He tensed as Yamato's palm spread across his face and pushed him away from the monitor.  
  
    "Leave. If I have to speak to Abel again, I'm going home." Hibiki laughed again and swatted Yamato's hand out of his face.  
  
    "Okay, okay! Fine. But I'm taking my chicken." He plucked the plate off the edge of his desk and left Yamato to it, trying to ignore the anxiety creeping up in his gut. This was so dumb. He and Yamato lived together. Yamato could undoubtedly teach him a lot if he were to bother letting him do so. Why should he be embarrassed about being aggressively mediocre at something Yamato's been a wunderkind at since he was six?  
  
    Ha. Haaa. Hibiki sighed and turned a corner to find himself in the open center of the building, whereupon he stopped and came dangerously close to dropping his chicken. It was stunning. Every golden surface positively gleamed beneath the bright string lights. An enormous tree stood in the middle of the room, beautifully ornamented and lavish. Velvety red streamers descended over the room like a tent top, and every table in the room was crammed with food and drinks. Whoever Yamato had paid to decorate had done an incredible job.  
  
    "Hibiki!"  
  
    He pivoted on his heel to see Abel soaring towards him, a pale bag hefted over his shoulder. He'd never seen him so festive! Hibiki slapped a hand to his mouth to stifle a laugh as he took in the sight of two tiny Santa hats adorning each pointy cat ear of his headphones. Apparently, Abel had taken the liberty of turning his cape red and trimming it with white fur. Abel didn't seem to mind his laughter. Both his arms enveloped Hibiki and hoisted him off his feet, plucking him right into the air where he was hovering.  
  
    Abel gave the best hugs. Hibiki hooked his free arm around his skinny waist and squeezed him back hard. "I've missed you so much. You look amazing!"  
  
    "Thank you. I do, don't I?" Abel set him back down on his feet and let go of his bag, which remained floating behind him lazily. With both his hands freshly unburdened, he took the opportunity to smooth down Hibiki's wild hair and toss him a doting smirk. "I missed you too. Where the hell have you been? I asked Yamato if he's been keeping your body in a freezer, but for some reason he did not laugh at my incredibly funny and not at all tasteless joke."  
  
    "What? That's crazy. I can't believe it." Hibiki snorted and drew his lips into a grin. "Just working. Kinda sorta. I was at a total loss as to what to get him for Christmas," he admitted. "So I'm trying something unorthodox."  
  
    He watched Abel's head cock further and further to the side the longer he spoke. "What, you didn't want to put a big bow in your hair and spread out like a harlot under the Christmas tree? I'm certain that would have been perfectly sufficient, Hibs."  
  
    "Wh- Harlot?!" The blush stole across his face to an annoying degree. Hibiki spluttered at him and grabbed a piece of chicken to bite into it, but that did less to distract him from his very public mortification than he'd thought it would. "I don't know what you're talking about," Hibiki assured him, his mouth full of chicken. Abel regarded him with a cocky smile and folded his arms, leaning back in the air.  
  
    "You're such a dork. Seriously, though, everyone's been looking for you. I think even Miyako is concerned about your welfare."  
  
    Hibiki pulled a face and rubbed at his cheek. "I know, I'm sorry. I just lost track of time. I really wanted to finish tonight, but I couldn't. I suck so much that Yamato is in there trying to fix his own gift." He sighed, but as he took another bite of his chicken, he blinked and peered over Abel's bony shoulder. "What's with the bag? Do you actually have gifts in there?"  
  
    "Aha! I'm glad you asked." Abel's entire face lit up as he grabbed the gathered end to swing it over his shoulder. It was kind of an odd shape. It didn't actually look empty, but the bag most certainly wasn't full. Regardless, Abel tugged it open and thrust his hand inside. "Merry Christmas Hiii-" He stopped, his face contorting as he pulled out a thick, heavy book and squinted at it. "...biki. Are you fucking kidding me? What the hell is this?"  
  
    "You don't even know?" What on earth. Abel was so bizarre! He reached out to take it and was shocked down to his toes to see that it was a C++ book. "Oh, wow! Thank you!"  
  
    "What! No!" Abel snatched it back and held it up to the light in a way that suggested he might have spontaneously lost his vision. "What the hell. This is what you want more than anything? That's so lame! You don't want, like, a 4K TV or a fake hydrocephalic skull or, I don't know, a hand-sculpted replica of Yamato's p-"  
  
    Hibiki hissed at him and planted his hand over Abel's mouth. "Don't be gross! And what are you talking about? Is that what it does?" Mystified, Hibiki pulled his hand away to look back at the bag. "It gives you what you want most?"  
  
    "Only in the particular instance you're digging into it, yeah," Abel explained. "I charmed a piece of mistletoe to follow Miyako around, so when I reached into the bag for her gift, I pulled out a Zippo lighter. She was pretty happy with it, actually."  
  
    A loud snort of laughter burst from him, and he ducked his head. "Jesus, Abel. That's ridiculously cool. Sorry my wish was lame. That was sort of my gift to Yamato. I'm trying to learn to code so I can help him with his programs, but I'm thinking it was a bust. I mean, it's not as though I had any delusions that I'd ever be as good as him, but I just...wanted to help."  
  
    Abel reached out to pet his hair fondly. "Aww, Hibs. I'm sure he appreciates it. Relax." He surrendered the book back to Hibiki and slid his arm around his shoulders. "So what is it you tried to make?"  
  
    Hibiki scuffed his toe against the bright, shiny gold floors. "The summoning app."  
  
    For a long moment, Abel watched him balefully. "Hibiki. You're mad at yourself because you couldn't code the entire fucking summoning suite that even Yamato admitted was more sophisticated than the one he'd written himself?"  
  
    "Wh- No! Uhm, not quite? I know I can't do something like that, but I wanted to try to write a tiny version of it. You can only summon like five demons from it. Except not, because for some reason it only summons Pixies, or at least it did until I got to an error that keeps causing it to crash." Defeated, Hibiki slumped against Abel's ribs and took another sad bite of his chicken. Abel patted at his back.  
  
    "Don't look so sad! The fact that you were able to summon a Pixie with a program you wrote yourself is fucking bananas to me." Despite himself, Abel's words made Hibiki feel better. He offered Abel a hesitant smile and stood up a little straighter.  
  
    "Thanks. I did some research on how JP's used to summon demons. The actual program uses a huge database that's way too complex for me, so I decided to just kinda...manually code them with classes. Basically, I wrote an abstract class with all the attributes that every demon shares and then created derived classes for each individual demon the program would summon." At this point Abel was staring at him, his eyebrows half-furrowed, half-cocked. Hibiki paused and coughed. "You probably don't care."  
  
    "Oh, no, I do. Do I follow? Absolutely not. But please, continue. I like listening to you talk like a nerd." Abel threw one leg over the other and sat in the air, his chin propped in his hand as he stared into Hibiki's face. He giggled back at him.  
  
    "If you insist! Okay, so, classes are more or less just objects. Well, I mean, you make objects using classes. It sounds more complicated than it is, I promise! Every demon has a name, a race, and a method to summon it, so that part was simple. I created a virtual function for the summoning itself. If you tried to write each demon as its own separate class, you'd be rewriting the same variables over and over again. This way, when I made my inherited classes, the only thing I had to do was code what the summoning function for each demon looked like."  
  
    Abel was still staring at him like Hibiki had suddenly started spouting Latin, but he had yet to ask him to stop. Instead he nodded on for Hibiki to continue. "I'll pretend I understood any of that. It sounds very efficient and impressive."  
  
    Hibiki laughed. He slid his plate onto a nearby table and folded his arms across Abel's knees. "It actually is, but that's just because virtual functions are crazy cool. Without them you have to tell the compiler exactly which function to run. Like, if you have five demon objects with five separate functions, you'd have to set up a whole bunch of if statements to tell it when to run which function. But with a virtual function, the compiler is smart enough to know exactly which one you mean. It's really amazing!"  
  
    "Uh-huh." Abel snorted at him and dropped his arms to play with Hibiki's hair. "You're so cute. Okay, so fancy schmancy virtual functions are a thing, but I still never understood how you actually summon anything with a bunch of code. Are you basically just making digital summoning circles or some shit?"  
  
    "Actually, yeah! Pretty much!" Hibiki nodded and tilted his head back up to smile for him. "The weaker demons are easy because they'll come with a simple circle. It's not until you get to all the hardcore demons that you start to meet more complicated requirements, which JP's and Nicaea both took care of on their ends instead. I'm not sure how, to be honest. For mine I just created functions that would generate the summoning circles on the screen, and that was that. Buuut now it doesn't work, even to summon the Pixies." A melodramatic sigh rushed out of him, and Hibiki groaned as he pushed his face into Abel's knees. Abel stroked his hair with sympathy.  
  
    "You've got to chill, my friend. I'm sure Yamato can help you fix it. It sounds like you're pretty close to making it work?" Abel asked, leaning back in the air and planting his hands flat behind him.  
  
    Hibiki exhaled a sulky breath and rolled his head to meet his gaze. "I know, but I didn't want him to have to."  
  
    Abel threw him a weird look. "Why? I get that you wanted to surprise him, but it's not a big deal. I figured the gesture itself was the important thing."  
  
    He made a noise against Abel's hot pink pants and sighed. "I don't know. I didn't want him to see my code. What if it's bad?" His ears grew hot as he voiced such a sentiment aloud, and to his dismay, Abel confirmed his ridiculousness with a loud scoff.  
  
    "What? It's code. Not that I know anything about it, but it's not exactly like a painting or some shit. It doesn't seem like it can be _artful_."  
  
    "Not true!" Hibiki slammed his hands down onto Abel's knees and lifted himself up. "What if I write shitty spaghetti code?! I don't even know what spaghetti code is! What if I write it and I don't even know it? And now he's going to know! What if he's disappointed in me?!"  
  
    Hibiki was unamused to see Abel recoiling with laughter, both his arms winding around his stomach. "Hibiki!! God, you're adorable. I think if spaghetti code was that much of a deal breaker, I doubt Yamato would have let you get far enough to live in his apartment and get pine needles everywhere." A loveworn sigh left Abel as he reached for Hibiki's hair to ruffle it fondly. "You've been together for like a year."  
  
    "So?" A frown seized him, and Hibiki dropped his chin back down to Abel's lap.  
  
    "So," he said patiently, leaning forward and clapping both hands to Hibiki's cheeks. "The fact that you're worried about impressing someone after you've had their taint in your mouth is...quaint."  
  
    "Abel!!" Hibiki pushed both his hands into Abel's laughing face and shoved him away. He could feel his face overheat so much he was sure the tips of his ears were going to start smoking. "If Miyako hears you I might actually lay down and die on the floor."  
  
    "Sorry, sorry." Abel pried Hibiki's hands off his face and tossed him a bright, irreverent smile. "Take a breath, Hibs. I'm pretty sure Yamato thinks you invented the sun. Look, think of it like this. Even if you do write shitty spaghetti code, having a master programmer helping you out seems like the best way to get past that."  
  
    It was true enough. Hibiki inclined his head and let his fingertips toy with Abel's knee. "Point taken. So..." He shot the bag another curious glance and peeked back up into Abel's eyes. The red of his irises matched his cape, which Hibiki imagined was very much intentional. He smiled for him and canted his head. "Did you already get Yamato something from your bag?" He was dying to know if Yamato actually did want something material he could have gotten for him, but knowing his luck, Abel would have pulled out something impossible, like some elixir of knowledge, or a venus fly trap that ate paperwork. To his disappointment, however, Abel shook his head and sat back again.  
  
    "Not yet. I tried to, but he power walked away from me like an old lady doing a mall circuit. He probably knew I'd pull out something filthy and then the whole world would know he's secretly a kinky degenerate."  
  
    Hibiki scoffed hard. "What makes you say that? I seriously doubt it. He's too practical to look at a Christmas Bag of Holding and want a sex thing."  
  
    The look that schooled over Abel's face trumpeted the extremely snarky retort he clearly had on his tongue, but he managed to refrain. Instead, he reached out to poke the tip of Hibiki's nose. "You say that, but Daichi's gift was a Fleshlight shaped like a butt. I chose not to read too much into it."  
  
    "How diplomatic of you!" Hibiki found himself shaking with laughter again and immediately turned his head to look for Daichi, as if he thought he might see him clutching his new toy. "I bet he's still blushing, isn't he?"  
  
    "I think his face is permanently stuck like that now, yeah."  
  
    Once he recovered from his mirth at his best friend's expense, Hibiki was drawn back to the bag like a magnet. He was consumed with curiosity to know what Yamato might pull from such a thing. Even if it was something simple, like Hibiki and his C++ book, at least it could give him an idea of something Yamato might need or appreciate. Evidently it was more transparent than he'd hoped, because Abel soon nudged him with his foot and tilted his head. "If you're so interested, I'll give him his gift if you'll go get him. Maybe he'll be less of a Scrooge about it if you're here."  
  
    "You think so?" Hibiki perked up with another sweet smile and let go of him, straightening his back. "Then I'll be right back. He's probably done anyway." He could just see Yamato finishing up the program in ten minutes and using it to summon a bunch of demons Hibiki hadn't even written classes for. "Sit tight! One beautiful Chief coming right up."  
  
    He left Abel to his own devices and trotted off towards his own office feeling much better than when he'd left it. It was still dark inside when he poked his head around the door. "Yamato?"  
  
    Hibiki was just in time to see a Pixie disappearing from the air as Yamato sent it back to hell and glanced over towards him. "Your program is working."  
  
    "I noticed!" Ugh, he was so amazing. Besotted, Hibiki hopped over the arm of his chair to plop down in Yamato's lap and smack a kiss to his cheek. "Was it something stupid? It was something stupid." He turned to face the screen as Yamato used the mouse to highlight only two short lines of code.  
  
    "You were remarkably close. You created your temporary object, but you didn't create the actual object. Your pointer was pointing to nothing, hence your error."  
  
    "Oh! Damn it!" He'd spent hours debugging over two tiny lines?! It figured. Hibiki sighed loudly and leaned further into Yamato to rest the back of his head against his shoulder. "That seems incredibly obvious in retrospect." A shiver stole down his spine as Yamato laughed against his ear and draped one arm against his middle.  
  
    "Yes, well, you know what they say about hindsight."  
  
    A tiny smile stole across his face as Hibiki dropped his hand to Yamato's pale wrist and skated his fingertips along the delicate bone there. "Thanks for looking at it. Uhm...so what do you think?"  
  
    "Regarding?"  
  
    Oh, right. Hibiki cleared his throat and sat up, scooting across Yamato's thighs to face him better. "The code itself. Is it horrible?"  
  
    Yamato made a face at him. "Your program works. Ultimately, that is what matters. It's not horrific to parse, if that's what you mean. It runs, you've cleaned up properly, and it performs what you want it to. Is there something about it that concerns you?"  
  
    For several seconds, Hibiki fiddled with his sleeve and tried not to think about how stupid he felt about admitting to his boyfriend that he was suffering performance anxiety about his coding. "I just...didn't want you to think I write spaghetti code."  
  
    Yamato snorted and kissed his temple. "You didn't write everything inside main, so consider yourself leagues ahead of other novices." He paused, then laughed and offered Hibiki a smirk that made him want to collapse onto a fainting couch. "I'm charmed that you organize all your variables by type."  
  
    "I try," Hibiki retorted modestly.  
  
    "Mm." Yamato fell silent, then lifted one of his sharp brows and glanced towards the screen. "I rather enjoyed your comments as well. I particularly liked the ones in capslock."  
  
    "Oh. You saw those, huh?" Embarrassing!! Hibiki wrinkled his nose, but he smiled nevertheless and looped his arms around Yamato's neck. "I'm glad it's not terrible. Did you figure out why it only summons Pixies?" He pulled away from him to watch Yamato scroll down to the Pixie class he'd written. He simply motioned towards the screen, leaving Hibiki to blink and squint at it.  
  
    He re-read the contents of it several times before it finally hit him like a ton of bricks, and a strangled noise of anger filtered from between his teeth. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, I thought I fixed that!" Ashamed, he lurched over the keyboard to add a second equal sign and crumpled back against Yamato's torso. Yamato chuckled behind him and patted sympathetically at his middle.  
  
    "It happens to the best of us."  
  
    Hibiki was not to be distracted from his sulking, however. He let his arms dangle over his chair and whined. "I can't believe my whole program was screwed up because I missed an equal sign."  
  
    Yamato snorted at him again. "Welcome to programming."  
  
    He felt Yamato kiss his hair. It made him feel better, and he swung around in Yamato's lap once more to plant a sound kiss to his mouth. "Thank you. Sorry it's a lame Christmas gift."  
  
    "On the contrary, I enjoyed it very much. I suppose now is an opportune moment for yours." He nudged Hibiki out of his lap and stood as well, his hand sinking into his coat pocket. He withdrew a small envelope that he handed to Hibiki, who tore into it with intrigue bright in his eyes. Inside were two plane tickets to Germany.  
  
    "Y- Yamato! I thought you were all vacationed out?" His entire body felt warm and buzzing with excitement. He threw his arms around Yamato's waist and dragged him into another eager kiss, his fingers still closed around the tickets. "Thank you." For a brief moment, Hibiki felt incredibly foolish that he'd believed Yamato was already tired of traveling when they'd only visited one country, but it flickered away as he realized that if he'd bought tickets himself, they'd have a less tragic Gift of the Magi situation going. Maybe if they had four tickets, he could have convinced Yamato to take Alcor and Miyako. ...Probably not.  
  
    "You're very welcome."  
  
    Hibiki let go of him to slide the tickets back into their envelope and put them away in his own jacket. "As far as first Christmases go, how did I do? I got off to an admittedly crappy start, but-"  
  
    "Hibiki." Yamato silenced him, the pad of his thumb pressing to Hibiki's lips. "I'm reserving my judgment until the end of the night. By my estimation, you have-" He paused and opened up his cell phone. "...Four more hours. Use your time wisely. I expect to be wowed."  
  
    Holy shit. Hibiki felt breathless as he stared back at him, his insides a squirming mess. He wanted to take him home right then and do terrible, awful things to this exquisite man, but they did have guests to entertain for at least another hour. "R- Right! Well then!" He grabbed Yamato's hand and twined their fingers together to pull him along behind him. "In that case, you should go get your present from Abel. That's sure to make for a memorable Christmas experience."  
  
    "Absolutely not." Yamato scowled and dug his heels quite literally while Hibiki tugged uselessly against his heavier weight. "Don't think I didn't see what he gave to Shijima. I will pass."  
  
    Hibiki smothered a laugh into his empty palm and tugged at Yamato's arm again. "Come on, it's not like that! He gave Miyako a lighter." Yamato grunted an annoyed acknowledgement. "He gave me a C++ book. I'm sure it's fine!"  
  
    "...Did he?" Finally, Yamato relented. "Very well." He twisted his hand to grasp Hibiki's hand and followed him out of the office. Abel was still right where Hibiki had left him. He looked genuinely surprised to see him emerge with Yamato, and he floated over towards them with a wicked smirk.  
  
    "Nice to see you again, Chief," he purred. Yamato did him the courtesy of meeting his gaze, but little else other then pursing his lips. "C'mon, don't be such a sourpuss. It's Christmas!"  
  
    "Nnh." A frown tugged at the corners of Yamato's mouth. "You're lucky Shijima is Hibiki's friend. If you give any of my employees a sex toy, I'm banning you from the building."  
  
    "Hey. Look." Abel sneered at him and yanked open his bag, thrusting an arm inside it and gesticulating with the other one. "I can't help it if you hire a bunch of perverts. I-" The words died in his mouth as he tugged on something inside the bag and then eyed it. Hibiki watched him with increasing desperation to know what he was looking at as Abel's eyes darted from the bag up to Yamato's face, then back to the bag, then back to Yamato's face, then over to Hibiki's face. Then his mouth curled into an extremely catty smile as he snapped the bag shut. "...I'll give yours to Hibiki later."  
  
    "Wha-" Yamato was immediately offended, but Abel had already tossed the bag over his shoulder and flitted away, calling Io's name and waving to her.  
  
    Hibiki swallowed a laugh and tugged Yamato down to kiss his chin. "He's probably just fucking with you, Yamato."  
  
    His words didn't do much to assuage Yamato's irritation, at least as far as Abel went. But he was perfectly pliant when Hibiki drew him further into the room where the party was still ongoing. And he let Hibiki steer him towards a spot where a pretty sprig of mistletoe was hanging from the rafters.  
  
    "Merry Christmas, Yamato." He clutched at the lapels of Yamato's coat and pushed forward to meet him, tilting his head and lacing their lips together. A warm hand came up to hold the side of Hibiki's face.  
  
    He was _definitely_ going to have to go get that gift from Abel later.


End file.
